This flag was personally designed by Peter the Great
and a sketch of it is still conserved in the Kercenskij
Museum. The design of the blue S. Andrew cross remained,
from 1712, only on the white field of the
naval ensign,
while flags of this model were given in 1699 to the Czar
ambassadors in Ukraina and Costantinopole, but
disappeared very soon.Mario Fabretto, 27 Nov 1998

In one of the worlds first flagbooks, compiled
by Carel Allard (from Amsterdam) in 1695
[ala95],
shows three Russian flags:

horizontal white-blue-red, over all (shifted
to the hoist) a golden double headed eagle with
a red shield (with St.George, without the dragon)
on its chest and a golden crown over its heads.
Caption: Czar of Moscovia.
(See here.)

horizontal white-blue-red, over all a blue
saltire. Ratio of the flag aprox. 1:3. Caption:
Other flag of Czar of Moscovia.

1699-1914 civil ensign

image by António Martins, 21 Oct 1997

The plain white-blue-red
horizontal tricolor was adopted as the Russian civil
ensign in 1799. In 1858, a black
- golden yellow - white horizontal tricolor was
adopted as the civil flag but it got highly unpopular
and so in 1883, the civil ensign was adopted as an
alternate civil flag.Tom Gregg, 09 Jan 1997